The House of Commons votes the House of Lords as "useless and dangerous"

1725:

The first known Indian scalping by white men was reported in the New Hampshire colony

1726:

American Revolutionary War hero William Prescott. born

1790:

Holy Roman Emperor Joseph the Second died

1791:

Carl Czerny was born. His studies are played to this day. born

1792:

President Washington signed an act creating the U.S. Postal Service. Letters delivered up to 30 miles cost six cents to mail. For letters up to 150 miles, postage was 12 cents

1809:

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled the power of the federal government was no greater than that of any individual state of the Union

1816:

"The Barber of Seville" , Rossini's opera, was premiered, however, at the time there was already a popular opera by another composer based on the same Beaumarchais comedy. Fans of that opera booed Rossini's, but his version quickly became an even bigger hit

1831:

Polish revolutionaries defeat the Russians in the Battle of Growchow

1838:

Ludwig Boltzmann, atomic physics engineer born

1839:

Congress prohibited dueling in the District of Columbia

1872:

Luther Crowell received a patent for a machine for manufacturing paper bags. Patent # 123811 allowed the bags to have two longitudinal inward folds

Frederick Douglass, an escaped slave who became one of America's most prominent abolitionists, died in Washington, D.C. (He was probably 78, although his exact date of birth is unknown.)

1898:

Enzo Ferrari, sports car manufacturer born

1900:

J. F. Pickering, a black inventor, received a patent for his airship invention

1902:

Photographer Ansel Adams born

1903:

Pope Leo XIII celebrates 25 years as the Pope

1904:

Soviet leader Alexei Kosygin born

1906:

Russian troops seize large portions of Mongolia

1910:

The founder of the Little League Baseball Organization, Carl E. Stotz, in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. In his honor, the regional winners from the U.S. compete in the Little League World Series in his hometown. born

1914:

"What's My Line" TV emcee John Daly born

1915:

President Wilson opens the Panama-Pacific Expo in San Francisco to celebrate the opening of the Panama Canal

Hitler demands self-determination for Germans in Austria and Czechoslovakia

1941:

Singer-songwriter Buffy Sainte-Marie (I'm Gonna Be a Country Girl Again, Mister Can't You See, Up Where We Belong) born

1941:

The Chicago Symphony under the direction of Frederick Stock premiered a piano concerto by Rudolph Ganz which the composer, who also soloed, based on themes drawn from the license plate numbers of his two cars

1942:

Hockey Hall-of-Famer Phil Esposito. born

1942:

Movie director Mike Leigh ("Secrets and Lies") born

1942:

Franklin D. Roosevelt authorizes the internment of Japanese Americans on the West Coast

1942:

Lt. Edward O'Hare downs five out of nine Japanese bombers that are attacking the carrier Lexington, which earns him the Congressional Medal of Honor

1944:

During World War Two, US bombers began raiding German aircraft manufacturing centers in a series of attacks that became known as "Big Week."

In the Persian Gulf War, Baghdad radio said President Saddam Hussein would be sending Foreign Minister Raeiq Aziz back to Moscow with a reply to a Soviet peace plan

1991:

Quincy Jones' "Back on the Block" was named album of the year at the 33rd Grammy Awards

1992:

Texas billionaire Ross Perot told CNN's "Larry King Live" he would run for president if his name were placed on the ballot in all 50 states

1992:

South African President F.W. de Klerk stunned his country by announcing a whites-only referendum on ending apartheid

1992:

Rightist Salvadoran leader Roberto D'Aubuisson died at age 48

1993:

The hijacking of a Russian jetliner finally ended in Stockholm, Sweden. The Azerbaijani who commandeered the plane after it departed from Siberia gave up his demand to go to the U.S. and surrendered

1993:

Police in Liverpool, England, charged two ten-year-old boys with the abduction and slaying of toddler James Bulger, a crime that shocked the country and terrified parents. (Jon Venables and Robert Thompson were later convicted.)

1994:

Bosnian Serbs, faced with the threat of air strikes, pulled back most of heir heavy guns from around Sarajevo as a NATO deadline approached

1995:

A U.S. Marine, Sgt. Justin A. Harris, died in a helicopter crash during the evacuation of United Nations forces from Somalia. ember

1996:

Patrick Buchanan won the New Hampshire Republican primary by a slim margin over Bob Dole

1996:

Gangsta rapper Snoop Doggy Dogg and his former bodyguard were acquitted of murder in the

1997:

The National Transporation Safety Board called for a speedup in the redesign of the rudder controls on Boeing 737's, citing potential problems suspected in a pair of deadly crashes

1998:

With the U-S military poised to attack Iraq, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan began a final campaign to end the crisis over UN weapons inspections without bloodshed

1998:

Tara Lipinski of the US won the ladies' figure skating title at Nagano, becoming at age 15 the youngest gold medalist in Winter Olympics history; Michelle Kwan won the silver

1998:

U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Bill Richardson was interrupted by demonstrators protesting the Clinton administration's stance on Iraq during a speech, and he responded that the demonstrators "are wrong." About 50 protesters drowned out Richardson with chants during his breakfast speech to a foreign policy forum at the Humphrey Institute at the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis

1998:

Prosecutor Kenneth Starr defended his aggressiveness in probing the White House sex scandal, and suggested he was ready for a court fight with President Clinton over the limits of White House secrecy

1998:

The crew of Mir celebrated the 12th anniversary of the space station by flying their escape capsule around the aging, accident-prone ship

1999:

Movie reviewer Gene Siskel died at a hospital outside Chicago; he was 53. (I can't believe it has been a year already.)

1999:

The United States and five other nations agreed to extend by three days the deadline for a Kosovo peace agreement. (NATO had threatened airstrikes against the Serbs if they did not reach an agreement with Albanian insurgents.)

2000:

The Fox TV network canceled the scheduled rebroadcast of its highly rated special "Who Wants to Marry a Multimillionaire?" after learning that the groom, Rick Rockwell, was once accused of hitting and threatening to kill an ex-girlfriend, accusations Rockwell denied